Suffolk Conservatives' purity test ensnares former GOP aide

News, views and commentary on Long Island, state and national politics.

Warren Greene, who spent more than three decades working for Republicans in Suffolk County and Islip Town, is one of 1,500 people being asked to justify their Conservative Party registration.

Greene retired at the end of 2009 as the aide to Suffolk Legis. Cameron Alden (R-Islip). He received a form letter from the party last week informing him of a hearing Tuesday night at which he'll be asked to explain why he switched his registration from Republican to Conservative in October 2008.

"It is complained that your enrollment may not have been motivated by your being in sympathy with the principles of the Conservative Party," the letter states. It gave Greene a hearing date of Tuesday at 6:20 p.m. in Central Islip.

"It's kind of bizarre that they would pick on a low-level non-descript senior citizen like myself," Greene said.

Suffolk Conservative Party Chairman Edward Walsh said there was no effort to target Greene.

"To me it's nothing but a list of names," Walsh said. "This is to protect the party. We're trying to make sure our members are Conservatives. If you were trying to join for some other reason, you probably won't be let in. We don't know who's who."

Greene said he registered Conservative out of anger with his local Republicans and not because of the police union's anti-DeMarco vendetta.

"I was very unhappy in the direction that the Islip Republican organization and the county Republican organization itself was taking," he said. "So I registered as a Conservative. There's no ulterior motive here, absolutely none."

About Greene, Walsh added: ""Isn’t he a lifelong Republican operative?"

Get The 1600 newsletter

Get our inside look at the White House and goings on in the Donald Trump administration.